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The journey is always the same, and never the same. As Ian Bostridge remarks, at the end of his prize-winning book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, when the wanderer asks Der Leiermann, “Will you play your hurdy-gurdy to my songs?”, in the final song of Winterreise, the ‘crazy but logical procedure would be to go right back to the beginning of the whole cycle and start all over again’.

It felt rather decadent to be sitting in an opera house at 12pm. Even more so given the passion-fuelled excesses of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, which might seem rather too sensual and savage for mid-day consumption.

Manitoba Opera opened its 45th season with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly proving that the aching heart as expressed through art knows no racial or cultural divide, with the Italian composer’s self-avowed favourite opera still able to spread its poetic wings across time and space since its Milan premiere in 1904.

In 1992, concert promoter Heinz Liebrecht introduced pianist Julius Drake to tenor Ian Bostridge and an acclaimed, inspiring musical partnership was born. On Wenlock Edge formed part of their first programme, at Holkham Hall in Norfolk; and, so, in this recital at Middle Temple Hall, celebrating their 25 years of music-making, the duo included Vaughan Williams’ Housman settings for tenor, piano and string quartet alongside works with a seventeenth-century origin or flavour.

Not many (maybe any) of the new operas presented by San Francisco Opera over the past 10 years would lure me to the War Memorial Opera House a second time around. But for Girls of the Golden West just now I would be there again tomorrow night and the next, and I am eagerly awaiting all future productions.

It’s taken a while for Rossini’s Semiramide to reach the Covent Garden stage. The last of the operas which Rossini composed for Italian theatres between 1810-1823, Semiramide has had only one outing at the Royal Opera House since 1887, and that was a concert version in 1986.

‘His master’s masterpiece, the work of heaven’: ‘a common fountain’ from which flow ‘pure silver drops’. At the risk of effulgent hyperbole, I’d suggest that Antonio’s image of the blessed governance and purifying power of the French court - in the opening scene of Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi - is also a perfect metaphor for the voice of French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, as it slips through Handel’s roulades like a silken ribbon.

From the start of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s splendid, new production of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre conflict and resolution are portrayed throughout with moving intensity. The central character Brünnhilde is sung by Christine Goerke and her father Wotan by Eric Owens.

Compared to the oft-explored world of German lieder and French chansons, the songs of Russia are unfairly neglected in recordings and in the concert hall. The raw emotion and expansive lyricism present in much of this repertoire was clearly in evidence at the Holywell Music Room for the penultimate day of the celebrated Oxford Lieder Festival.

This concert was an event on several levels - marking a decade since the death of Stockhausen, the fortieth anniversary (almost to the day) since Singcircle first performed STIMMUNG (at the Round House), and their final public performance of the piece. It was also a rare opportunity to hear (and see) Stockhausen’s last completed purely electronic work, COSMIC PULSES - an overwhelming visual and aural experience that anyone who was at this concert will long remember.

Winston Graham’s 1961 novel Marnie was bold for its time. Its themes of sexual repression, psychological suspense and criminality set within the dark social fabric of contemporary Britain are but outlier themes of the anti-heroine’s own narrative of deceit, guilt, multiple identities and blackmail.

On November 12, 2017, Arizona Opera presented Giacomo Puccini’s verismo opera, Tosca, in a dramatic production directed by Tara Faircloth. Her production utilized realistic scenery from Seattle Opera and detailed costumes from the New York City Opera. Gregory Allen Hirsch’s lighting made the set look like the church of St. Andrea as some of us may have remembered it from time gone by.

‘Only make the reader’s general vision of evil intense enough and his own experience, his own imagination, his own sympathy and horror will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars. Make him think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications.’

Austrian singer Elisabeth Kulman has had an interesting career trajectory. She began her singing life as a soprano but later shifted to mezzo-soprano/contralto territory. Esteemed on the operatic stage, she relinquished the theatre for the concert platform in 2015, following an accident while rehearsing Tristan.

The morning sickness, miscarriage and maundering wraiths are still present, but Katie Mitchell’s Lucia di Lammermoor, receiving its first revival at the ROH, seems less ‘hysterical’ this time round - and all the more harrowing for it.

Nothing but a wall and a floor (and an enormous battery of unseen lighting instruments) and two perfectly matched artists, the Manon of soprano Ellie Dehn and the des Grieux of tenor Michael Fabiano, the centerpiece of Paris’ operatic Belle Époque found vibrant presence on the War Memorial stage.

From David Zinn’s fantastic sets to the gender-bending
casting to the non sequitur romp through human emotion with every new scene, the production
was a delight to behold, though I fear that the novelty of combining two counter tenors and a
pants role trumped all else that was wonderful.

Flavio is characteristic of full-length Handel opera, deftly combining the tragic and comic as
Mozart and Rossini would later do. An on-stage death and subsequent lament is followed
immediately by a comic scene involving a love triangle, which is in turn followed by a scene in
which one of our heroes pleads with his love to kill him. There is always danger that such manic
drama will jar the senses a bit too much, but Flavio is one of the more subtle examples in
Handel’s oeuvre.

The potpourri was emphasized by Zinn’s colorful sets and costumes. Fanciful greens, pinks,
yellows, and blues combined to embolden the incongruities of the work. One of the most
prominent sets was a high grassy hedge, on which hung lamps belonging inside. The hedge
functioned alternately as garden and throne room, leaving the audience to incorporate grass in the
royal chamber and fancy lighting in the great outdoors. The costuming was equally as creative; at
one point Theodata, played by Kathryn Allyn, donned the baroque version of a French maid
costume.

Make no mistake, however, the night belonged to the performers, especially the high-pitched
male heroes of the story. Two lead roles in this opera were written for castrati, with a third pants
role to boot. While revered and sexually desired in their day, the operation involved in creating
the castrato voice has since understandably fallen out of favor. So we have counter tenors
instead. City Opera conveyed to the audience the import of having two men sing their falsetto out
in the six-page preparatory essay in the program booklet. The article explicated the history of
castrati and the modern rise of the counter tenor, which author Marion Lignana Rosenberg links
to the contemporary early music revival. Rosenberg also mentions the gender issues inherent
when men sing in traditionally female registers, likening the operatic trend to the popularity of
high-pitched male crooners in pop music.

Indeed, although the counter tenor voice is both aesthetically beautiful and fascinating from the
perspective of the historian, gender issues were key in the audience’s reception of Flavio. And
how could they not be? In this city, in this business, at a critical time in the gay rights movement,
it is natural and healthy that an opera with two fabulous men playing the studly heroes and a
woman as the third-most-testosterone-filled character comes to the fore. And so it was that the
audience’s awareness of these issues was palpable. There was dead silence, the likes of which
I’ve hardly experienced, during the first counter tenor aria of the evening (ably sung by Gerald
Thompson), and later giggles as Emilia, Guido’s love interest, sang “when it comes to odd
lovers” (these among a slew of further examples I could note).

If members of the audience did tear their minds from such novelty, they heard a sound and
capable cast. David Walker was returning to the title role, and he handled the mood changes
deftly all the while singing a massive range of notes. Gerald Thompson as Guido filled the other
counter tenor role. His voice was more developed although his acting left much to be desired.
Katherine Rohrer played Vitige, Flavio’s servant who outwits his (or her?) master to get the girl
in the end, a power play redolent of later Mozart and Rossini. Ms. Rohrer has a sweet and clear
voice and first-rate comedic timing. Kathryn Allyn’s deep mezzo was well served in the role of
Theodata, and Marguerite Krull sang beautifully as Emilia, especially in the lament. Indeed, Ms.
Krull proved to be the most adept Handel interpreter of the bunch with her florid, effortless
cadenzas. Notable too was the period orchestra, lead by William Lacey on the harpsichord. Their
ensemble skills and obvious diligent work at authenticity were admirable.

In all, the New York City Opera’s production of Flavio was at once delightfully whimsical and
timely. All elements pulled together to create a wonderfully incongruous whole. May we see
many more such gender-bending productions in the future!